The Division looks like TLOU meets the worst parts of Destiny. Would it have been better if it was more like DayZ?

DISCLAIMER: I have not played it, and only watched Twitch Streams and the QL.

Does it look like a different game?

From what I've seen (GB QL, numerous streams) it looks like a by the numbers loot grind coop game. I've not seen any of the dank zone stuff so I can't comment on that, however I can take a stab and guess it won't be all that appealing to me considering the spongy nature of the shooting and the general lack of any interesting hook to its systems that other games haven't done before it.

It's a shame, because if it was a singleplayer/coop game that was structured like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with good shooting mechanics (like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) I would've been salivating all over it. The environments are really well done even after the visual downgrade and the atmosphere could've been something really special. To me it's all wasted on a pretty tired game structure.

@timeshero said:

umm... I'm gonna say no to that, nothing gets better by being similar to that garbage.

looks good to me, I'd only prefer it to be first person instead, also the whole dark zone thing of "hey you can totally turn on people" thing is stupid because, as Dan has stated in the unfinished video, that's what will end up happening 100% of the time because people are jerks.

Played about 3 hours of the Beta on PS4, pretty much did all the stuff Jeff and Dan did in the quicklook and some random running around in the city / dark zone.

Did the Madison Garden mission solo, fights against normal enemies seem fine and super bullet spongy. But the last special named enemy definitely took about 5 full clips of assault rifle ammo to the head / torso to take down.

Movement and shooting feel OK, though I don't really have a huge frame of reference since the last 3rd person shooter I played was Binary Domain.

Only time I've died so far was going back and trying to do the Madison Garden mission through matchmaking, getting into a group that was halfway through the "dungeon" and repeatedly falling through the world, dying, spawning back in after bleeding out and then repeating that process a few times after quitting that party.

I wouldnt hold Dayz as a shining example of a good gameplay. Dayz has a pretty clumsy user interface which requires a lot of time to get familiar with.

Also that game has been in early access state for almost 4 years now with no end in sight.

It's more like Destiny's structure with Mass Effect/Gears/Ghost Recon gameplay. The beta is a little weird because there's about one mission and the rest is side stuff and the dark zone. If the game has a lot of missions and is going to be filled with more stuff later then it'll be fine. It's definitely not "the worst of Destiny" - this seems to have a story/plot and actually has a fair/logical loot system, so it's far better than Destiny in those ways. I thought the enemies were going to be sponges (from looking at Youtube) but regular guys go down in about 2 to 4 seconds. Looking at the first half of this year I don't see a game that's going to be better.

No, it wouldn't have been better - and this is a pretty brief beta. I've had a few hours in - up to level 7 and will be co-oping with some friends on PC this weekend to see how it all comes together, and most importantly the dark zone with a friend will go. Dark Zone in the alpha was pretty depressing as it was pretty much like the worst parts of Day Z - get killed for no reason because someone goes rogue and you don't have much recourse. Punishment for dying is fairly low from my memory, but you respawn without any extra equipment you've found in the DZ. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get a good chunk of hours in and enjoy it all by myself, without having to rely on co-op or matchmaking.

I'm a little thrown off by all the hate the beta is getting - personally I'm pretty happy as it's a brief look and proves that I can wander NY and find a lot to keep me occupied. I want to keep going and upgrade my base, want to see what the crafting is like (especially after getting some rare blue level blueprints). But man it's depressing but not totally unexpected to see a lot of "Division is worst game not out yet" or some degree of "we've seen it before" - I'll still pick it up on launch because the beta solidified that I'll like the end product as long as servers aren't locked up. I do hope that the story doesn't pull the Destiny and go a bit vaporous but I'm excited for the core elements in place so far. Weapon mods alone have me searching every crate and container for new stuff.

What are the worst parts of Destiny? To me, the worst parts of Destiny is the lack of content. If The Division can provide enough variety in the single-player/ coop aspect of the game, I'd be interested. I hope the game world is big enough and interesting enough to explore and you're not just going down the same old paths like Destiny.

I hope the loot is more varied too. Not just "This weapon is 1 level above the one you have, therefore it does 5 more damage". The look felt so static in Destiny.

What in the fudge is TLOU

I want to go to the dank zone.

Dank OG Zones.

@lachrymoses: TLOU = The Last of Us ... I think. Probably.

I kinda wish it was more like DayZ. I know DayZ in early access is garbage now, but the DayZ mod was way better once you got used to the ARMA stuff. I would have loved if The Division took the fundamental idea of DayZ and used it. The Dark Zones are getting close to that idea, but ultimately, the consequences from dying isn't really all that bad from what I have seen. Additionally, the bullet sponge characteristic of enemies and players really just makes PvP a numbers game. A group will most likely always beat one lone player since there doesn't really seem to be any way for a player to quickly kill another player like in DayZ.

skip skip skip TLOU

I just want a co-op multiplayer version of the Last of Us. The pvp in that game is criminally underrated too.

Well, this thread seems dumb. The OP is basically just a thread title. Also beta discussion thread. But of course this is the one that gets all the attention because Question in title + Negativity = MUST CLICK.

I'm pretty sure "more like DayZ" is never the answer for any video game ever in the existence of all time.

It does basically look like a shooter loot grind type of thing. Basically everything the industry has gotten me burnt out on in the last five years packed into one game. Co-op might interest me if not for the fact that I have almost no time to play with the people I want due to schedule stuff, and yet it's an open world grinding game, so that makes no sense. Much better to play something we can actually finish or feel like we accomplished something in. Why does every game have to be open world now?

As for DayZ, I'm gonna say...no? Or maybe? Idk. DayZ is ridiculous looking at it from the outside in. Just super brutal, rough learning curve, lots of intentionally tedious mechanics. It might be cool with more involved survival mechanics? Who can say. What's there now looks super uninteresting though, but I'm sure it will resonate with Brad and everyone else who loved Destiny, to my complete confusion.

Yummylee pegged this thread right.

A smidge hesitant toward anyone who thinks any game could be improved by being more like DayZ. Sorry for judging you but I'm judging you.

Borderlands! It's Borderlands with TDI Vectors just like Destiny was Borderlands in space, just like all these multiplayer and quest focused shooters that devs pretend are revolutionary and compare to MMOs are just Borderlands.

@blackout62: And Borderlands was more or less Diablo with guns. Which was probably derivative of something else. You can boil pretty much any game down to "x, but with y."

@zeik: Yeah but even that's a significant genre shift. Borderlands, Destiny, and The Division are all loot based shooters (okay, yes, The Division is third person) and the latter two want to pretend they aren't inspired by the former.

The loot based shooter wasn't even something Borderlands did first though. And despite all being shooters with loot in them, there are a lot of fundamental differences in how they play and their underlying mechanics. I played a hell of a lot of Borderlands, and a reasonable amount of Destiny, but once you get past the obvious window dressing they really don't feel that much alike. Frankly, Destiny did feel a lot more inspired by MMO design than Borderlands ever did. (Which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing.) I'm sure Borderlands must have been one of their inspirations, but it's also obvious it wasn't their only inspiration.

I've played about 4 odd hours of the beta on PC, I've rinsed all the single player PVE content available completely and dabbled in about 1 hour of 'Dork Zone' and I'm just under rank 8.

It's a pretty competent 3rd person cover shooter, with strong elements of shoot and loot. Solo, It's sort of shallow and fun, In the way I imagine Destiny is. The Dark Zone is a interesting hook, BUT it's incredibly vague about objectives, and I don't know if this is a side effect of the beta, but it doesn't really have all that much meat on its bones. When you enter the DZ, there isn't any HUD indicator of what you should be doing, yes there are a lot of icons on the mini map, but they signify f**k all of use in my experience. My time there involved me desperately seeking out AI enemy's to murder, so I could justify my time there and then and wandering around bumping into player doing the same. Now I know the main source of tension comes from extracting your hard earned loot, but honestly that got old quite quickly, and I really didn't encounter much heat conflicted, In fact it was more like group of single men standing in line at a checkout!

Maybe I've just been away from MMOs for so long (played WOW for a couple of years) but I think there needs to more focus in this beta, there should be at least a mini raid available, some high level thug that needs to taken down with multiple players. This games is clearly targeting the Destiny style audience (and the MMO scene at large) but it doesn't seem to be pandering to them at the moment.

I will say the loot loop is quite satisfying and upgrading your gear is neat, and the hinted at base expansion seems cool.

Over all, a kind of fun shooting gallery in a well realized, if slightly dull, contemporary post apocalyptic New York.

having played a lot of destiny and a reasonable amount of the division beta i still don't see the destiny comparisons outside of, like, loot

I have put over 14 hours into the beta so far, and I plan to spend some more time tomorrow. It's the best parts of Destiny + some of the best parts of The Last of Us, like the amazing and detailed world. I went from not being interested to pre-ordering the gold edition.